Sunday, May 10, 2015

The Assault on Okinawa

This largest island in the Ryukyus was invaded by American
forces, supported by sundry British and other Western Allied naval elements, on
April 1, 1945. It was not secured for nearly three months and only after heavy
fighting and great loss of life, including of civilians who committed suicide
or were cut down by fanatic Japanese officers, or were simply caught in the
crossfire. Before the invasion, Imperial General Headquarters thought the enemy
might land on Taiwan instead. As part of the Sho-Gö defensive plan, the Japanese
moved one of their best Army divisions to Taiwan from Okinawa to await an
invasion that never came. Imperial General Headquarters feared that if Okinawa
fell it would be used as a major base to bomb Japan. The Western Allies agreed,
but saw it also as a way to threaten the Japanese Empire in northern China and
Manchuria. That revealed a grim Allied determination about how the war would
end: in massive land fighting on the mainland of Asia, eventually involving the
Red Army, and not ceasing until all Japanese resistance was crushed. That
assessment of the future of the war was not shared by Japanese leaders, many of
whom clung to delusional notions about what they might reasonably expect from
an enemy coalition whose formal demand was unconditional surrender.

The assault on Okinawa was made by air, land, and sea forces
larger than the D-Day (June 6, 1944) fleet that supported the Normandy
campaign. The Imperial Japanese Navy never imagined such naval power in its
wildest visions or nightmares: over 1,500 enemy warships approached Okinawa at
the end of March 1945. Most were American, but there were also Australian and
British ships in the armada. Preliminary air attacks were massive, launched
from British and American carriers as well as by long-range B-29s operating out
of the Marianas. Extensive bombing was conducted against air bases on Kyushu,
but many aircraft on that island were well-concealed and survived the assault.
The small Kerama Islands were taken on March 26-27, in advance of the main
landings on Okinawa. Hundreds of ‘Shinyo’ suicide attack boats and other
suicide weapons were discovered on the small islands. The Keramas were used for
long-range, land-based artillery support of the main landings and as a safe
harbor for damaged ships. Operation ICEBERG landed 184,000 troops of newly
formed U.S. 10th Army on Okinawa on the first day. A total force of 545,000
ultimately made it ashore. Waves of nearly 2,000 kamikaze met the invasion
fleet, the largest in naval history. Over the following months suicide pilots
sank 38 U.S. warships and damaged nearly 200 more, in a campaign that saw over
3,000 kamikaze attacks. A suicide flotilla of Japanese warships also sortied.
Centered on the IJN Yamato, it made a run for the beaches but was stopped cold
on April 6, when 380 carrier-based aircraft from Task force 58 intercepted the
squadron and sank ‘Yamato,’ the lone cruiser in the flotilla, and four
destroyers in the lopsided action called the ‘Battle of the East China Sea.’

BB Yamato's last operation.

The Japanese on Okinawa did not meet the invasion on the
beaches. Instead, over 100,000 men of Japanese 32nd Army waited inland in
prepared and well-fortified defenses on the northern Motobu peninsula and in a
separate belt of fortifications across the southern Oroku peninsula. Motobu was
cleared by U.S. marines by April 20. An assault on the southern defensive belts
began on April 19. The Japanese counterattacked on May 4, then withdrew to an
even deeper set of fortifications on Oroku. The fighting was close and intense,
with flamethrowers an essential weapon used to winnow out bitterender
resistance. On June 22 Okinawa was formally declared secure. Over the course of
the land battle the Japanese lost an astonishing 7,800 planes, and a lesser
number of pilots. Over 7,000 U.S. troops died in their bloodiest battle of the
Pacific War. The Americans took 49,000 total casualties, including 4,907
sailors killed or wounded by kamikaze, the highest loss rate in any battle of
the war. Japan lost 107,539 military dead, over one-quarter of whom were blasted
or incinerated to death or sealed inside caves. About 11,000 Japanese military
prisoners were taken, first truly significant Japanese surrender in the Pacific
War. About one quarter of all civilians on the island also died, some 75,000
souls in all. Many had been encouraged—and some were forced—by Japanese
officers to seal themselves in death caves or to hurl their children and
themselves into the sea. The death agony of whole families was captured on
film.

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About Me

Mitch Williamson is a technical writer with an
interest in military and naval affairs. He has published articles in
Cross & Cockade International and Wartime magazines. He was
research associate for the Bio-history Cross in the Sky, a book about
Charles 'Moth' Eaton's career, in collaboration with the flier's son,
Dr Charles S. Eaton. He also assisted in picture research for John
Burton's Fortnight of Infamy.
Mitch is now publishing on the WWW various specialist websites combined
with custom website design work.